Break And Enter
by ArcaFeretory
Summary: "God he was going to give her so much shit for this." - AU. In which catching serial killers is a thing.
1. Chapter 1

**I'm just going to quietly leave this here...**

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><p>"You need to stop being so reckless."<p>

She just smirked back at him.

He lifted an eyebrow. "No, seriously," he added when it became clear she wasn't doing that. "Stop it. One day you'll get someone hurt and then where will you be."

"Oh stop it, Luke, you big uptight prude," she snapped at him. "It's fine. It's almost like you don't trust me."

"Right now I don't."

Her stomach sank to her feet and wallowed. "Um… What does that even mean?"

"It means you're stuck here for a week," he told her flatly.

"I have a _case_," she nearly shrieked at him. "Are you seriously telling me I can't finish it?"

"That's exactly what I'm telling you."

Her eyes went big, very big, as she stared at him in spluttering disbelief. She couldn't even formulate words. Not one. Every time she opened her mouth to demand he reconsider, that he explain himself, nothing came out. Well, nothing more than jumbled garbage anyway.

"You're going to be liaising for the rest of this one," Luke informed her with a frown. He picked up a folder bound in twine and slapped it into her limp hands. "Jesse will be taking the field with your partner for the rest of this. You get to be his errand boy."

_No way_, her brain kept stuttering. _No way, this isn't happening. He's got to be kidding._

"Don't look at me like that, Becky," he said flatly. "Take that down to the morgue and get caught up on everything. Jesse's taken Ben out now. He'll call."

"I'm _not_ going to be his errand bitch," she finally got out. "No way." Funny how her mouth was finally echoing her brain, the delay time would've been funny in any other instance.

Luke just shrugged. "You should've thought of that before you used your partner as bait."

"That wasn't even dangerous!" she exclaimed. "I was at risk there, not Benji."

Shaking his head, Luke sat down. "The fact that either of you was exposed to more than the necessary amount of danger is unacceptable." He waved a hand at her, letting her know she could leave now.

Still quivering with rage she didn't dare express, she did as he said. Her fingers were white-knuckled on the folder as she headed across the room to her desk. Only… as she got half-way there she realised she no longer had one. It had been commandeered months ago when Benji had arrived and needed a place to do up his paperwork. He was sitting there now, shoulders hunched, nose nearly pressed to the screen of his monitor.

She slumped. "Oh…" she said. Well fine. If she didn't have a desk anymore and she wasn't allowed to work the case, she'd just go hang out with Lilly in the morgue. Although, the more she thought about that, the less appealing the idea became. Still (resisting the urge to flip the bird at Luke on her way past), she headed outside, snatching her jacket off the rack on the way.

A spring shower had materialised sometime since she went in and she grumbled, about it. As with most convenient things, the hospital and its accompanying morgue were right beside the police station here, meaning she didn't have to go far down the street to get in. Of course, the downside to having such an 'opportunely' situated morgue was that she didn't have much of a buffer between her and Luke. Or Jesse now. God he was going to give her so much shit for this.

Stepping into the creepy and cold centre for the deceased, Beca shook the rain from her hair, pulling her jacket just a little closer as if that would help any. The light in the entrance flickered silently. There hadn't been a receptionist here since Lilly scared the crap out of the last poor woman. The desk was still covered in papers and there was a sign in book bound to one corner that she happily ignored.

Still muttering angrily about today's current downward slide, Beca strode down the hall, her shoes clicking eerily against the tiles. Reaching the end room, Lilly's office, she pushed it in. The door still creaked. Lilly should really oil the damn thing; all the whining noises it made were insanely creepy. But then everything about this stupid building was creepy. Just how Lilly liked it.

"Sup, Lilly? I am your… oh…" she cut off, standing stock still in the doorway. That… that wasn't Lilly.

Instead of the tiny somewhere-from-Asia-but-Beca-could-care-less medical examiner, sat a taller girl with brilliant red hair. Her eyes were fixed to the screen in front of her, the light reflecting in a strange white-wash blue across her face. Beca just continued to stand there staring at her.

Finally shaking free of whatever confused spell had frozen her in the first place, Beca knocked on the door frame. The girl looked up. Well… ok not a girl. She was probably Beca's age. Anyway, she looked up and fixed Beca with a piercing electric stare, although she looked a little bit lost somewhere up in her head too. She was probably just as weird as Lilly.

"Hi," Beca said softly. The door swished shut behind her as she finally stepped in. "Where's Lilly?" The woman blinked and Beca was struck by a most uncommon thought that it was a shame to hide those blue eyes for any length of time. She sighed, thinking she'd have to reiterate her question.

"She's out," the woman replied brightly, suddenly seeming to return to the proper plane of existence from whatever other realm she'd just been in. "I'm Chloe, her intern. Can I help you?"

Beca snorted. "Yeah, good luck with that. Nah, I think I'll just sit here for a while and wait. Got nowhere else to be anyway." Suiting her words, she slid up onto the table by the door, swinging her legs.

Chloe nodded and turned back to her desk. "What's your name anyway?" she asked. Very forward, very blunt. She was going to be one of those people who has no respect for personal space or boundaries, Beca could just tell.

"Beca Mitchell," she replied softly, staring up at the ceiling. How had Lilly managed to get coffee stains on her ceiling? "Detective."

Chloe nodded again, this time it was a little vaguer than last time though. "Beale," she said in that same cheery tone from before.

"Huh?"

"My last name. It's Beale."

For a moment Beca just sat in silence, chewing her tongue because this was kinda awkward and weird. Why was today going to pot? Why couldn't it just be a normal day instead of all this bizarre crap?

"So, hey," Beca started, not really wanting to sit in silence anymore. "Why'd you pick this, huh? Not a very nice job is it?"

Chloe shrugged. "I've always been interested in forensic pathology. I did a term at the hospital as a surgeon, but as much as I liked helping those people, it didn't really work for me. At least working with the police means I know I'm going to be of some use and working primarily with people who are already dead I don't have to worry about accidently cutting the wrong artery."

Beca huffed. That was a weird way of justifying it. "Sure," she said, rolling her eyes.

"And you?" Chloe asked, tearing her eyes from the screen to stare at Beca again. "Why a detective?"

She smirked. "Cops and robbers," she said teasingly. "Plus I really like mind games."

Chloe laughed at her. "I'm sure there's more to it than that."

"Not really," Beca told her, shrugging one shoulder. "I wanted to do something in the music industry when I was a kid. But… I dunno, life I guess."

The redhead arched an eyebrow and smiled knowingly at her. "So not living the dream then, I take it?"

"It's better than I thought it'd be. I like to slap cuffs on a bad guy and wave as he's carted off to prison. It's fulfilling."

Chloe just smiled at her and Beca's stomach did a backflip. Maybe she'd had some bad coffee earlier. She should've known better than to drink the slop Benji got for her.

The door swung in again, spilling the little medical examiner into the room. Lilly spared a blank glance for Chloe and then turned her signature flat stare Beca's way. She promptly ignored them both, heading for a filing cabinet where she rummaged around for a while, coming up with a sheaf of crisp white paper.

"I heard you were coming down here," Lilly said so softly it was almost inaudible.

"Yup," Beca replied, forcing cheer she didn't feel. "Liaison at your service. Or 'errand bitch' as I just _know_ Jesse is going to call me all day." She scowled at the floor for a moment before dusting off her fake smile and setting it back in place.

Lilly nodded and passed her the papers. "Is Benji alright?"

Beca exhaled heavily. "Why is everyone so worried about it? Like you all think I'm incompetent or something. He's fine. I wouldn't let him get hurt."

Lilly simply regarded her for a moment. Her expression was the kind of one you'd expect on a serial killer. Just… no emotion. Beca supposed working down in this dreary dungeon it made a sort of sense to be so… empty.

Beca fiddled uncomfortably with the papers in her hands, still not looking at them. Lilly eyed them once and then cast her gaze back at Chloe. "Stay with her," she told her intern, meaning Beca. "Don't let her hurt herself. You, read that and tell me if something doesn't look right."

That last was for Beca and it grated. She ground her teeth together, trying not to let her smile slip. "Sure thing, boss," she said wryly. Lilly left and Beca stuck her tongue out at the closing door. She dropped the paper on the table beside her and cut her eyes to Chloe. "Guess I still have a partner then."

Chloe beamed at her. "Guess so."

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><p><strong>I don't know what I'm doing with this here at all. Even a little. It just fell out. I dunno.<strong>


	2. Chapter 2

**Wow. Thank you all for the positive feedback. This chapter is entirely because you guys are amazing and I couldn't let you down.**

**I still don't know what I'm doing. Consequently the plot is completely weird. I'm literally just making crap up as I go. Anyway. Feedback lets me know you're keen, so leave a little blather down the bottom if you want me to keep going. Thanks again. c:**

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><p>Beca ran her hands through her hair for about the twelfth time that minute. "Ugh," she groaned, sinking across the table in defeat. "It's like high school all over again."<p>

"Spent a lot of high school groaning on tables, did you?" the intern asked cheekily.

Glancing up, she noticed Chloe's teasing smile and glared in reply. "Study, actually," Beca corrected dryly. "I hated studying then and nothing's changed in… however many years it's been."

"Mmn," Chloe replied, still smiling softly. "Isn't this your case? Shouldn't you know it inside and out?"

"Pretty sure the only person to have seen these particular insides is Lilly," Beca shot back. "All I know is that there're a couple of dead women and they all died in similarly suspicious circumstances. It's not my job to know this crap."

Chloe's eyebrows shot up. "No, it's my job," she said flatly. "What's the problem then?"

Beca sighed. "They weren't druggies, they weren't prostitutes, they weren't even a little bit too fond of booze," she muttered, pawing through the papers now spread out across the desk she'd appropriated. She lifted a picture of one woman and grumbled, "This was Alicia, a twenty-three year old primary school teacher who was supposed to get married this winter. She frequently went on long walks with her colleagues and ate healthy all the time." She shuffled them around and picked up another picture, then another. Six women were dead so far. "Not one of them so much as smoked!" Beca explained.

Standing, Chloe sat on the edge of the table beside Beca and sifted slowly through the information on each of the women who'd been killed. Well, they were assuming they'd all been killed, the chances of six women (all in relatively good health, it should be noted) dying within six months was pretty slim. None of them had displayed the exact same symptoms, but Beca wasn't going to argue semantics. Not her style.

"Were they poisoned?" Chloe asked slowly.

"I dunno, I'm not the ME, am I?" Beca said tartly. "That's Lilly's area of expertise." Beca waved a hand at another pile of documents she'd barely touched.

Chloe rifled through those papers too, eyes scanning the lists of tests run on the cadavers. The way her gaze skimmed so quickly through the long sciencey words that made no sense to Beca spoke of her familiarity with the terms and their meanings. Her mouth contracted into a thin line as she read, eventually parting only to let out a frustrated sigh.

"Lilly's done all the tests," Chloe whined, sliding down onto a chair beside Beca. "Well probably not all of them," she amended, "that would take weeks. But close enough. It's…" she flailed for a word.

"Inexplicable," Beca provided.

"Sure, that'll do." Chloe rested her head in her hands. "You spoke to their parents, right? The families of the deceased?"

"Yeah, so?"

Chloe shrugged. "I don't know. I mean I watch a lot of crime shows on television. Isn't the killer usually someone with a connection to them all?"

Beca laughed. "Sometimes. Other times it's just some random psycho getting off on killing people at opportune moments."

"There was no evidence of sexual assault," Chloe reminded her.

"Doesn't have to be. It's the whole killing people bit that makes them happy."

Chloe exhaled again. "I don't understand serial killers," she admitted.

"Good thing you don't have to," Beca reassured her. "You just get to dissect their victims. Finding them is my job… Or it was."

At that, Chloe sat up, bright blue eyes delving deep into Beca's soul to extract all her secrets. "Yeah, what happened there? Lilly mentioned someone called Benji?"

Beca sighed, trying to ignore the intern's penetrating stare. "Benji's my partner. He's pretty new, just got transferred to the precinct a few months back. I was following a lead over in one of the dockside suburbs and we got into a bit of trouble. I told him to go one way while I went the other. I figured we could split them up and lose them. Bullets were fired, but we made it away. My boss wasn't happy that I'd left a rookie to his own devices. He might've used the word 'bait' at one point, but that's totally not what happened." Beca shrugged.

"Tough gig."

That's all the redhead had to say on the matter. Then she slipped off the chair and slumped back down at the computer. No sympathy, no self-righteousness, no 'how dare your boss be so mean'. Just. Just fact really. Beca's jaw hit the table.

"Why were you dockside anyway?" Chloe asked, going back to typing… whatever that was.

"I uh… followed my gut."

"And? What's that supposed to mean?"

"I thought it might've been drug related," Beca huffed. "I have a contact down there so I went to ask him about it. He denied it all, of course, but that didn't stop some of the more paranoid idiots over there from getting antsy and shooting at us."

"They were expecting a bust." Chloe bobbed her head as she spoke, stating it like it was a fact. Truth be told, Beca didn't know why they'd behaved that way. Given the chance she'd have followed up later. Not now though. All she could do was hope Jesse read her notes. Not that she'd ever been very good at documenting things.

Her phone beeped in her pocket and Beca had to tear her eyes away from watching Chloe's fingers on the keyboard to get it. The screen flashed. _Two missed messages._

The first was from Benji and said simply, _Sorry_.

And the other was a cryptic message from Jesse. _Brace thyself_. Beca blinked at it for a moment, dreading what he meant.

Sure enough, the door exploded inwards not even a minute later expelling Jesse into the room. He swept in and grabbed Beca from behind before she had the chance to do more than affix a scowl to her face. As she was dragged from her chair and pulled into a messy hug by the other detective she noticed Benji standing in the hallway with an apologetic expression.

"Becaw!" Jesse all but screamed in her ear by way of greeting. "Chilling in the morgue I see. How anti-social of you." He looked up then to see Chloe smiling at them amusedly.

"Get off me, Swanson," Beca grumbled. She pushed him away and straightened her jacket, sliding across the room, putting the desk between them. Then she focused on glaring at him.

He was still blinking stupidly at Chloe. "Um… hi?" he said, mouth not quite wrapping around those words like he wanted. If Beca hadn't been so goddamn angry with him, it would've been comical.

Chloe smiled brightly and waved to him. Then again, she did peer past the still-open door to give Benji the same welcome so Beca simply chalked it up to her 'too friendly and invasive for comfort' theory and moved on. That didn't seem to stop Jesse from swallowing though.

"I'm Chloe," the redhead said politely before turning back to her work.

"Jesse," he replied slowly. While the intern wasn't looking at him, he turned Beca's way and mouthed, 'She's hot.' And in spite of her forced-foul mood, Beca couldn't stop from smiling at him. "So," Jesse said, leaning back against the filing cabinet. "You're Lilly's intern, huh? And how are you liking it down here?"

"It's good experience," Chloe told him, eyes still glued to her screen. "I must admit I wasn't ready for the office to be invaded by detectives just yet. Such an eclectic bunch you are. I would never have expected so much company in a morgue." At that last bit her gaze flickered over to Beca. Just for the merest of moments, but she was positive it happened.

"Oh?" Jesse asked with a raised eyebrow. "And how _are_ you finding dear Beca's company?"

"That's a loaded question, Swanson," Beca growled warningly. He just smirked. Benji finally sidled into the room then. Probably not his best judgement call, but whatever. He was new, Beca'd cut him some slack.

Chloe just laughed, her chair squeaking as she spun away from her desk – well, it was technically Lilly's desk. "She's not so bad," the intern said, still smiling.

Jesse opened his mouth to say something he would no doubt consider witty, but Benji (in a shocking turn of events) interrupted him. "Uh… Jesse, don't forget your question," he pressed quietly. Benji was softly spoken unless he got excited… or drunk, so Beca had heard. He was socially awkward and she'd questioned Luke's decision to pair them together from day one.

Snapping his fingers, Jesse lurched to a fully upright posture. "Right," he said, eyeing Beca warily. "Listen… I've done my reading on this case and… Well, frankly, I'm not sure there even is a killer."

Beca frowned at him but didn't speak. She could see why he might think that. He seemed surprised that she wasn't going to argue the point.

Chloe on the other hand, appeared to disagree with him. "Why?" she prodded. "There is a suspiciously similar amount of time before each death."

Jesse stared at her for a moment, taking overly long to process that. "I don't think Jesse knows what you're talking about," Benji told her, glancing at his new partner.

The redhead clicked something on her screen and swung the monitor around so Jesse could see what it was. Beca (who had previously been able to see the screen and now had to move closer to Jesse and wasn't happy about that), shuffled around to peer at it. It was a timeline, a very borderline creepy timeline at that.

"That's…" Jesse breathed.

Chloe nodded. "Inexplicable," she said, borrowing Beca's word from earlier. "I was with you on that 'no killer' theory until I put this together. Now I'm not so sure. I know a lot of people die every day, but this is weird."

"And they do all kind of…" Benji began. He trailed off when all three other people turned to look at him though, clearly nervous.

"Kind of what?" Chloe prompted gently.

He hunched his shoulders. "Well, they don't _look_ alike," he said. "Not really. I mean some are blonde, some brunette, one had green hair even. But they _do_ kind of look alike at the same time. They're all the same age, and their heights are within an inch of each other. All female too, all from a specific social circles."

Jesse pursed his lips, frowning at the information on Chloe's computer. Finally, he sighed. "You're right. It's more than a coincidence." He ran a hand through brown hair that very obviously hadn't been brushed recently. "I'm going to talk to the relatives again."

"Please be nice to them," Beca grumbled.

"Aw, and here I was thinking _you're_ the prickly one," he sniped with a smile. "See you later, Mitchell. Keep your phone handy."

"Actually," Benji began tentatively. "Do you know anybody who has a working knowledge of poisons and pharmacy?" he asked, definitely talking to Chloe, but being a little awkward about eye contact. Beca took back what she thought before about his social discomfort, he was just awkward all around.

"Why?" Jesse asked. "Just Google it. But mostly why?"

Benji shrugged. "I thought it might be a good idea to get in contact with someone about it. Lilly can only run so many tests and if poison is behind this then we'll need someone who can narrow down the search."

Jesse ogled the other man, stunned by such an astute observation. "Yeah, okay," he finally muttered. "Mitchell, consider that your task for today. Find me a chem-head to interrogate." He waved, smiled once at Chloe (who wasn't paying him any mind) and followed Benji from the room.

"Nice fellow," Chloe mumbled after a minute.

Beca simply huffed a reply.

"Are you friends or just colleagues?"

"Friends," Beca finally sighed. "For the most part. We've known each other for probably ten years. I'm being mean to him right now for getting to take over my job." Her teeth clicked shut and she frowned at her toes only now realising how much she was saying to this complete stranger. Why couldn't she stop the words from falling out? Her day just kept getting weirder.

"That explains why he manhandled you," she said, nodding. "Hey, so… I, uh… have an idea…"

Beca squinted at her, leaning away slightly. "Do I want to ask? Or will you scar me for life?"

"Ha, well I was just thinking that I might know someone to help out with the case," Chloe went on. "I am… uncertain whether outside help is allowed on a murder case however."

"Oh, well, sure they are," Beca said, relaxing a little. "All we really need is their John Hancock on a piece of paper saying they won't blab anything. You've got sciencey friends I take it?"

"Yup." Chloe stood, jangling her car keys. "You wanna go for a drive?"


	3. Chapter 3

**And then I had a plot all planned out. (I promise I'm not BSing even though that's excellent advice, I'm not big on being misleading, readers deserve better than that.) Thanks for reading guys, do leave some love at the bottom. :D**

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><p>First off, Chloe's car was gross. For someone who spent so much of their time with corpses, she was unacceptably happy <em>all the time<em>. Her car reflected this. In fact, if Chloe were that freaky Transformer chick that jumped what's-his-face in the movie, she would've turned into this exact car. Oh wait, that's not how that worked was it? Not the point. The point was, Chloe Beale's car, was her with wheels. And it _freaked_ Beca out to no end. With its yellow seat covers and little smiling sun hanging from the rear-view mirror to the shiny pastel pink paint job and the flower stickers plastered over the bumper. Beca had known this woman for all of two hours and she was already worried.

Secondly, the chirpy intern had a lovely singing voice and excellent taste in music. Beca didn't tell her this though. She was too busy trying to melt into her seat to escape the optimism the other woman oozed unconsciously.

Thirdly, the house of her friend (or work maybe, she couldn't tell) was very neat. That was her initial thought: tidy. It had a perfectly trimmed hedge that couldn't have been squarer if it tried. The trees were pruned back, the stepping stones leading to the stairs were all swept and exactly the same distance apart, there were pebbles laid out immaculately around those stepping stones and the vanilla paint coating the whole building was so… so… _perfect_ it must've been done by OCD elves. Beca imagined that if she were to get a ruler and drop to her knees she'd find that every last blade of grass was the same length.

By this point, her morning probably couldn't get any worse and the sick churning feeling in her stomach that was uncomfortably reminiscent of nausea had reached its limit. She was worried. Very much so, in fact. If the woman behind this house matched it as well as Chloe matched her car there would be a very creeped out Beca leaving in five minutes. The long walk back into town didn't even look half as daunting as the prospect of dealing with a control freak.

Chloe, naturally, didn't seem to pick up on Beca's discomfort. She bounced on her toes, the car keys jumping up and down on her palm as she headed for the white picket fence around the property. Beca had to take a deep breath and mentally steel herself before she could even get out of the car to follow. At least it had stopped raining.

She held the gate open for Chloe, partly because it was polite and partly to give herself an extra moment before having to go in. Chloe just beamed at her. Her stomach did that peculiar somersault thing again and she decided to cut back on the station's coffee.

"Why thank you," Chloe said, walking backwards up the path to the steps and nearly falling over when her heel hit the first one. "Oop. Okay, so I do need to let you know one thing before we go in," she went on, giggling a little at her near-trip. Those words sounded ominous to Beca and she frowned. "Aubrey is a bit… controlling."

Beca glanced around at the front yard and lifted an eyebrow. "I would never have guessed," she replied sardonically.

"Ok, yeah," Chloe said with a glance at the hedge. "That's obvious really isn't it? Just thought I'd give you a heads up anyway." Then with another blinding smile, she darted up the front steps and pressed the doorbell.

It sang an unsurprisingly formal tune that had Beca rolling her eyes. After what felt like forever, the door was opened by a tall blonde woman. Beca's head lolled to one side as she took in the pencil skirt and white blouse the woman was wearing and her lips pursed slightly at the way her hazel eyes glossed over her with derision written somewhere unfathomable on her face. Yes… uptight. Probably a prude too. Beca made a mental note to introduce her to Luke sometime; they'd get on swimmingly she was sure.

"Hello, Chlo," the woman said, her face breaking slightly around the edges as she smiled.

"Bree!" Chloe enthused, diving straight in for a warm hug. "Good to see you again. How are you?"

"Come in, introduce me to your weird friend and then we can talk." The words were so matter-of-fact that Beca nearly choked at them. She had to suppress an uncharacteristic urge to stick her tongue out at the woman as she followed Chloe past her into the house.

Then, of course, she had to suppress the very characteristic urge to snort at how tidy the house was. _A place for everything_, she mused wryly. _And everything in its place._

Chloe flopped down on a sofa in the lounge like she owned the place, patting the spot beside her cheerily. Beca wondered not a little drily if the woman had ever been sad in her life. Tentatively she perched beside the lively redhead and her eyes latched warily onto the house's owner as she all but stalked in after them.

"Aubrey," Chloe began, "this is Detective Beca Mitchell. She's liaison for a case. Beca, this is my best friend Aubrey."

"Dr Posen," the blonde woman said a mite shy of guarded and two steps off from being mildly upset. She did offer a hand though and Beca was just masochistic enough to shake it.

"A pleasure," Beca told her with a smirk. "Doctor of what, might I ask?"

"Dietetics and pharmaceuticals primarily," Aubrey told her flatly. "But I'm nearly done with my toxicology studies too."

Beca's eyebrows basically disappeared into her fringe at that. "Well that's… potentially helpful." She eyed Chloe crosswise, a little bit incredulous. "She doesn't help you with your homework, does she?" Beca couldn't resist the teasing remark.

Aubrey huffed, but Chloe had a much wider understanding of humour than her prim and proper friend and she just grinned. "Nope. But she is the reason I got that job with Lilly." Chloe leaned over to whisper conspiratorially, "Having contacts in high places is useful. Having a best friend in high places is better. Especially when you have all their dirt swept under the rug." She winked.

Beca had a moment of clarity then: she would never understand this fiery bundle of energy and positivity. Ever. Two hours wasn't enough, two years wouldn't be enough. She shuffled a little closer to the end of the sofa in a (rather vain) attempt to put a more respectable distance between them.

"Not that I wouldn't normally enjoy you dropping by unexpectedly, Chlo," Aubrey said, still eyeing Beca like she anticipated some sort of explosive mishap. "But to what do I owe _this_ particular visit?"

"Oh, right. Well Beca and I are supposed to be… working together I guess, for this case and we uh… were kind of hoping we could get your expert opinion on a few things," Chloe told her. The pauses, Beca supposed, were more due to her hesitance to explain the whole situation than for any other reason.

Aubrey's gaze finally drifted back to her friend. "You know I can't help you if I don't know specifics," she said, the question implied.

Chloe turned her eyes back to Beca who just sighed. She pulled the papers from her jacket pocket and leaned forward to pass them to Aubrey. "I can't actually tell you anything unless you sign that." Aubrey's eyebrows shot up in a very good 'you think I'll sign my soul away to you, little miss' look. "It's just a contract explaining that you're not allowed to disclose any information we give you. Feel free to read it if you want. I promise that's all it says, just with more words."

Aubrey's eyes blazed across the paper and – much to Beca's impatient disapproval – she did read the whole thing. When she looked back up, it was evidently having decided Beca was right. She must not have liked reaching that conclusion.

"Alright," Aubrey said, finished. "Do you have a pen?" Once Beca had passed her the implement and the blonde had 'signed her soul away' silence filled the room. Eventually Aubrey broke it, querying, "So what do you need from me?"

"There's been a string of killings," Beca said bluntly. "Six women are dead, all in good health, all the same age, all in similar-but-not-quite-the-same instances. We're not entirely sure if it's a poisoning thing, but I was told to find someone who might be able to help out with deciding if it is or not."

"You're liaising?" Aubrey pried, brows scrunching up in thought. "Didn't Chloe say you're a detective?"

"I am a detective, and yes I'm liaising. You're really on a roll," Beca said wryly. "That's two for two. Care for a third?"

Chloe leapt in to mediate then, no doubt expecting a heated response from Aubrey. "The precinct has decided that more minds means the killer is caught faster." It was a lie, and a blatant one at that, but Aubrey didn't know that. "Six murders is a lot."

Aubrey swallowed whatever she'd been about to say, not without evident reluctance Beca noted happily. "And you decided it was poison why?" Her question was notably directed at Chloe and Beca was hard pressed to conceal her smile.

"No other cause of death could be determined," Chloe replied with a shrug. "Although my boss said she ran a tox-screen and found no traces of poison in any of their systems, poison is my best guess. I just don't know what kind it might be."

"What symptoms did they suffer before they died?"

Chloe looked to Beca who pulled out another small bundle of papers. Once again, she couldn't quite supress the smile when Aubrey snatched them off her. It didn't take the _doctor_ long to devour all the information therein and sooner than Beca would've liked, she was being glared at again.

"Poison you say…" Aubrey mused. "Am I allowed to run my own tests?"

She was still looking at Chloe when she spoke so it must've really grated that Chloe didn't know the answer. Instead Beca provided, "I can get you a temporary pass into the hospital and morgue. I don't know if I can pull enough strings to get you access to more information on the case though. I'm sure Chloe can fill you in real covert like if you need it though."

Aubrey blinked at her, as though bending the rules was beneath her. "But I will be able to run my own tests?"

"Yes," Beca sighed. "You can run whatever tests you like."

The blonde nodded. "Set up a meeting with your superior so I can discuss things."

Part of Beca wanted to be irritated by this; she wanted to be absolutely furious that this stick-in-the-mud wouldn't take her word for things. But then she recalled her earlier resolution to introduce Aubrey to Luke anyway and felt instantly better.

"Yeah, sure," she said, smiling in a way Aubrey evidently didn't like. "I'll have Chloe let you know the wheres and whyfores. Then you can discuss compensation with him too."

"Good plan," Chloe enthused, still smiling in a way that must hurt her cheek muscles.

Beca glanced between them a few times, bobbing her head. "Well, cool," she muttered. "I'm just going to wait outside now." Best to excuse herself from this exceedingly awkward environment as fast as she possibly could.


	4. Chapter 4

**Shh, don't judge this. I've gotta get the band back together. ;P**

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><p>"She doesn't like me much, huh?" Beca whispered to Chloe two days later, rain drumming steadily above them. They were standing in the precinct, both leaning against what was once Beca's desk; watching Aubrey enter Luke's office. Any casual passer-by would probably have chuckled to note that their heads were on the exact same angle as they stared through the window as Beca's boss – lounging in his chair – had a conversation with straight-backed Aubrey.<p>

"She thinks you have too much attitude and wonders if your 'ear monstrosities' would aid someone in trying to drown you," Chloe confided quietly.

"Hum," Beca replied slowly. "Well I've never been much for first impressions."

"What about second ones?"

"Well I dunno… How'd I do?"

"The first impression was pretty good, actually."

"Huh. Must be losing my touch. I try really hard for abrasive and emotionally stunted. Did I not get that through?"

Chloe laughed at her. "You do them both splendidly," she assured Beca. "I just happen to find you equally amusing as well."

Beca huffed. "That's not what I was going for at all. I should see a doctor."

"Just wait for Aubrey to finish with your boss."

"Not the kind of doctor I had in mind."

"She'd just charge you an awful lot and direct you to someone who can give you an attitude adjustment anyway."

"Sounds worth it."

Chloe eyed her then. "She's not a bad person you know."

"Oh, I'm sure," Beca told her, smiling. "I just kinda like having someone so easy to mess with."

The expression on Chloe's face was a comical war between a grin and a frown. Neither could win out though and that alone was enough to prompt Beca to put her out of her misery.

"Hey look, I promise not to be too antagonising," she said around a mouth full of teeth. "How's that?"

"Well you will be working together on this."

"I was kind of hoping you would work with her and I could get the information from you. Less contact means less arguing." She lifted her eyebrows and gave her best innocent look. She was a little out of practice though and Chloe saw straight through it.

"Sure, yeah, cause that makes a lot of sense," Chloe said wryly. "Besides, didn't you already mention that you were going to be hiding in the morgue for the duration of this case?"

Beca hunched her shoulders, looking away from the other woman. "I don't think I used the word 'hiding'…" she muttered sullenly.

Chloe just laughed, but she didn't get to say anything else because the door of the office swung open and Jesse breezed in. The rain from the other day had only intensified so now his hair was plastered to his head and windblown. Benji, trailing in after him, had an umbrella. Smart guy.

He spotted them and his face exploded into a grin as he hustled over. "Sup, Beca and Beca's new friend?" he said, still beaming like a little boy. Benji merely muttered a good morning.

"Good morning, Detectives," Chloe fired back, still smiling.

Jesse looked like he was about to melt. "Just Jesse is fine," he said. "I'm on a first name basis for any friend of Beca's. She doesn't have many so it's not a problem."

Chloe turned her sunshine smile on Beca and chuckled. "You told him I was your friend?"

"No," Beca huffed. "I said we were working together."

Jesse just nodded. "Which basically means you're her friend. She doesn't play nice with people so she really shouldn't be picky."

Before Beca had a chance to say something snarky to him Luke joined their little group. Naturally that meant all talk had to cease. No banter (however friendly or well-intentioned it might be) would be tolerated. Aubrey was with him, looking so pleased that a gnawing feeling of anxiety started to bubble in Beca's stomach.

"Jesse," Luke said. "This is Dr Posen. She's going to be working down in the morgue with Beca on this case since we're not allowed to monopolise Lilly's time. She's got conditional access to things and I'm leaving it to you to decide what that means."

Jesse appeared to be having trouble formulating words. "Uh… yeah, alright then. Sounds good." Beca couldn't help but smirk.

"And how are you coming with your investigation?" Luke asked, staring flatly at Jesse who was still shuffling a little uncomfortably.

"I'm not really sure," he admitted, meeting Luke's eyes defensively. "There's no chance we have a technical advisor is there? It's incredibly difficult to find out if they were linked in any way."

Luke frowned and Beca could tell from the way his nose crinkled that he was about to ask all the 'whys' and the 'what fors' that would totally shut down Jesse's prying. It was a look she knew very well. Time for intervention.

But before she could open her mouth, Benji beat her there. "We think they all had something in common," he said quietly, never making eye contact with Luke for more than a few seconds. Which was fair enough, Luke was an imposing figure. "They all had so much in common, but the families don't recognise any of the other victims so we're pretty sure it's either something they wouldn't admit to, or it was a long time ago. But getting records like that is hard. We need an analyst."

Luke ran a hand through his short hair and sighed. "I was afraid you'd ask me that, you know. Just because we're the state police doesn't mean we have infinite resources. The government hasn't been our friend lately."

Benji deflated, his idea shot down. But he was right and Beca would be damned if she was going to let it go at that. "So we set up our own little task force," Beca said bluntly. Everyone looked at her. "What? It makes sense. It can't hurt. Besides, we've already got Doc here; why not find someone tech savvy too? I'm sure there's one on the staff somewhere, Luke."

"Task force?" Luke asked with a lifted eyebrow. "You were the one who didn't want to be on a special task force as I recall. Why the change in tune now?"

Beca folded her arms defensively. "I wanna catch this guy," she grumped.

"No, that's actually a good idea," Jesse said, finally coming to her rescue. "The special forces guys are swamped with stuff. We could help them out."

"We'd have to talk to Lilly," Chloe said, tapping her chin. Beca couldn't help but smile at her, like she thought it was going to be this simple.

Aubrey on the other hand was practically bristling. "Why?" she asked, pointedly skewering Chloe with her eyes. "You don't seriously want to work with these people, do you?"

"I take offense at that," Jesse said. "I'm a lovely person." Beca slapped him.

Once more, Luke sighed. "All the lone wolves are teaming up on me," he grumbled. "Fine. The commissioner wants more task groups down here anyway. I'll file some paperwork and see what can be arranged. In the mean-time, I need you to sort out your differences and solve this case. If I can make a convincing 'but they make a good team' argument they might go for it."

"And get us a computer geek," Jesse added as Luke walked off in a huff. Their boss just waved a hand over his shoulder to acknowledge that he'd heard.

_Why is my life spiralling so far out of my control_, Beca wondered, blinking after Luke. It was true; she hadn't wanted to be on any special 'team' for this kind of job. She was perfectly happy working alone (or with a partner if pressured). But the more the merrier right?

"Come on, Chloe," Aubrey said, breaking Beca from her internal reverie. "I need to see these bodies." She didn't even wait, just headed for the exit.

"Right," Chloe replied, following her friend. Then she stopped to smile back at Beca and Jesse. "See you guys later, then."

Once they were out of the station Benji slumped down at his desk and began pattering away at his keyboard doing who knows what. Jesse meanwhile elbowed Beca in the ribs. "Dude," he breathed. "Who knew that being your friend would pay off like that?"

"Like what?" Beca grouched back, genuinely confused.

"The doctor and her friend," Jesse said, beaming. "Dude, they're great."

"You mean you think they're nice to look at."

He shook his head. "Same thing. I didn't even realise you had it in you to make female friends." He winked. "You picked some good ones."

Beca wanted to slap him again. "I think you'd have your work cut out for you if you tried to date one of them," she grumbled at him.

"Oh? Maybe… Or maybe you're underestimating my charm."

Beca snorted. "Well, I personally would pay to see you loosen up miss-uptight-and-proper doctor lady. She's going to be a nightmare to work with."

"Yeah," Jesse said slyly with a wink. "But you'll have _Chloe_ there as a buffer."

She huffed, fighting back that same strange feeling in her stomach she'd been having the last few days. "They're best friends and I'm a random colleague they're stuck with. I have a feeling I rate second to any of that other stuff."

"Uh-huh. Sure."

Beca glared at him then stalked off to go 'hide' in the morgue. She didn't have to deal with him right now. He had a psycho killer to catch anyway. On her way out, she pivoted, heading towards her car. If she was going to be loitering in a building with dead people and Aubrey (a distinction she wasn't quite sure was needed), she was going to have her laptop with her.


	5. Chapter 5

Beca held up a hand, eyes closed, brow furrowed. "No. Stop," she said. Her fingers flicked outwards, a motion for the other person to leave. But, as she'd initially predicted, Chloe was invasive and had no idea what boundaries were.

She sat on the arm of Beca's chair and peered at her laptop. "That's not work," Chloe observed.

"Astute of you."

"What is it?"

"A hobby." Beca closed the lid of her laptop and shuffled an inch away from her companion. It was as far as she could get given how small the seat was. "Is there news?"

"Aubrey has identified the poison if that's what you're asking," Chloe said brightly. "Oleander tea."

Beca rolled her lip under. "Now, I'm no science whiz, but how on Earth can tea kill you?"

"Oleander is poisonous," Chloe chuckled. "There wasn't much left in them, but she decided it was definitely oleander."

"And the tea part?"

She shrugged. "I've stopped questioning some things Aubrey says. She'll be right, no doubt about that." Beca scowled at her and was countered by a beaming smile. "She did an autopsy and checked the stomach contents. They'd all consumed it."

Beca's mouth formed a little 'o' at that. It made sense. She didn't really like to think about peoples' insides, that was gross.

"I don't suppose oleander is hard to come by is it?"

Chloe sighed, smile wilting for a moment. "Sadly, no. It's quite popular for garden ornamentation. It grows in a great deal of places and any number of yards have it. Heck, my neighbour has oleander hedges."

"Great." Beca slumped backwards into her chair. "So we're back to square one. Is there any other news that might be beneficial?"

"Again, no. Sorry I've got no good news for you." As if on cue, her phone beeped. Chloe ripped it from her pocket and read the message hastily, a small smile reappearing slowly. "I take that back," she said. "We have a technical analyst. Jesse is very excited by this but is busy right now."

Beca huffed. If he thought texting that to Chloe was going to get her up to meet this techie geek he was sadly mistaken. They might be back on speaking terms now, but that was no excuse for him to not talk to her. Actually… that was twisted logic.

Her phone pinged and she knew it was Jesse without even checking. Naturally, she did check though and was delighted to be wrong for once. It was from Benji.

_Can you go visit Luke? He's got an analyst for us. I offered, but Jesse is pretty set on getting this interview done with._

Beca decided she didn't mind Benji. He didn't talk back like Jesse so often did, he was nice and polite. She sent him one back, _Sure. I'll head up there now. Tell Jesse that Aubrey found the poison. Oleander tea._

"Right," Beca said then, standing. "I have to go and meet our analyst."

Chloe bounced off the chair after her. "I'm coming with."

"I'd rather you kept an eye on Aubrey," Beca muttered sourly.

"Lilly told me to stay with you," Chloe deflected with a shrug. "She's my boss, I do what she says. I'm coming with."

Beca sighed, but held the door and waved for Chloe to go through. "Fine," she grumbled, following her out and onto the street. "We can do the good cop, bad cop routine."

She'd meant it half seriously, but got such a wonderful laughing response from Chloe that it didn't really matter how she'd said it. For now, the rain had stopped and Beca took the moment to turn her face up to the clouds, still dark and heavy with precipitation. The cool breeze that skipped along the street tugged playfully at her jacket, ruffling her hair, refreshing after the sterile morgue, then it darted along the road once more. Beca sighed, it was nice weather.

She stuffed her hands in her coat pockets and wandered along the footpath with Chloe. A few times, the redhead would glance her way, but never spoke. It was odd really; Chloe had such a vivacious personality that her _not_ talking seemed strange. Still, Beca held the door again when they reached the precinct and forced a thin smile as Chloe passed her.

"Oh good," Luke said, noticing them as he was exiting his office burdened by a stack of folders. He dropped the paperwork on a table and strode towards them, displeasure etched all across his face. It was a very 'uh-oh' moment in Beca's book. "Come with me."

"Uh," Beca began, but didn't have time to formulate a proper response before he grabbed her elbow and dragged her off. "Well, okay then. Is the manhandling really necessary, Luke?"

Chloe gave her a sympathetic look as Luke barged into a secondary office space. Desks were set up all over the place but most were unused for the most part and for down-time on occasion. Except that today… yeah that wasn't the case. Beca's jaw fell open limply as she took in all the cords snaking across the tables. Computers had been wired together and monitors moved so that half a dozen were linked together by bundles of wires all tied together haphazardly with what looked suspiciously like hair ties.

Beca blinked, still processing all that as Luke let her go. Beside her, Chloe gasped.

The chair in front of all these monitors squealed as its occupant spun to stare at them. She… wasn't what Beca had expected. At all.

"This is Amy," Luke ground out between his teeth. "And she needs to not be here later on. I can't have her taking over all my extra space. We have folks coming through here tomorrow that are going to need this area."

"Yeah…" Beca breathed, eyes wide as she took it all in. "Chloe?"

The redhead nodded. "We have a spare room at the morgue that Lilly hides things in. We can move all that out and put some computers in there." Her voice was unexpectedly small and soft, apparently she too was just a smidge overwhelmed by this.

"Cool, so I get my own office. Shazzam," the large analyst said, beaming. Her blonde hair was pulled back into a high bob and it bobbled as she swung around on her chair. "I've always wanted to work on a team like this. You guys better be prepared for my mad skills."

Luke glared at Beca. It was his very best 'don't make me regret this' look, premium quality in fact. He must have been letting that one mature for a while. She did her best not to look too flabbergasted by all this and just nodded. Then he stalked out.

"So are you two a crime fighting duo or what?" Amy said with karate chop actions. "Abercrombie didn't fill me in."

Chloe had to stifle a bout of laughter at that judging by how she hid her mouth. "No," Beca said in a slightly breathless tone (she was still a little stunned to be honest). "She's my babysitter." She gathered as much dignity as she could find then and draped herself in it, hoping it would make her feel better. "Come on then. Let's get you sorted."

And that's the story of how Beca found herself lugging boxes full of glittery crap into a somewhat cramped spare room at the morgue. The door to Amy's (or Fat Amy, she said she preferred, to prevent 'twig bitches' from feeling superior behind her back) new office was propped open with a pot plant. Chloe ended up thoroughly engrossed in a box of stationary that might actually have been hers from the colours. Amy let her keep the yellow one and Chloe then took great pleasure in putting little golden smiley faces on everything for the rest of the afternoon.

Amy wouldn't let either of them touch her equipment (a sentiment Beca could relate to) and unceremoniously kicked them out so she could put all her things together. That in and of itself took a few hours and Beca couldn't stop from poking her head in every five minutes to see how she was doing. Chloe, meanwhile, was writing something in her notebook with her new pen. Aubrey had joined them for a few moments when they arrived, but was now back in the office doing God only knows what. Beca didn't care; she wanted to get Amy onto the necessary research as fast as possible.

Finally, somewhere between her third and fourth runs for coffee and about five minutes before Beca made the executive decision to order pizza, Amy announced that she was done in a very sing-song tone. Beca was through her door within fifteen seconds and Chloe wasn't far behind. The room now looked like something from a science fiction story, with monitors hung up all over the wall and across the desk. Actually, it might have been a surveillance type set up that Beca was thinking of.

"All done, bitches," Amy informed them as they entered the dark room. Or well, dark was relative considering the amount of light given off by the screens.

"Thank god," Beca sighed. "Did Luke give you an access permit for the case?" Amy had refused to answer that question before since she was 'busy awesomifying the closet' but it was kind of important.

"You mean this bad boy?" Amy asked, tugging at a lanyard around her neck and exposing a little card with her name on it. Out of the corner of her eye, Beca saw Chloe instinctively look down to where hers was tethered at her hip. "He sure did. What's it for?" Amy started spinning it through the air like helicopter rotors.

"It's just so I know I'm allowed to tell you things," Beca explained. She glanced over at Chloe who was still staring at her card. "Hey, Chloe?" The redhead looked up, snapping out of whatever trance she was in. "Give her the info on the victims if you would."

Chloe's face turned a shade of red that very nearly matched her hair. "Sorry." She passed the folder to Amy who shuffled through the papers with raised eyebrows.

"Gotcha," Amy exclaimed, slapping the papers onto her desk. "So what is it you want me to do exactly?"

"We need to know if these six people all had something in common," Beca said slowly, still watching Chloe worriedly. She was being weird. "Anything at all. A hairdresser from five years ago would suffice. Maybe they all ate the same brand of vanilla ice-cream."

"Wow, that's a lot to look up, short stack," Amy said flatly. "How about you two scurry off and do something while I get on this. I don't like people watching over my shoulder. I'll text you when I get a hit." With that Amy spun back to her desk, cracking her knuckles. "Mission impossible underway," she muttered.

As Beca followed Chloe out of the dark room something occurred to her. "Did she call me 'short stack'?"

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><p><strong>I got sidetracked. There may not be a chapter next week. *slaps self*<strong>


	6. Chapter 6

**This story has hit the back-burners because I've discovered something (not shocking, really): that I have a very small attention span. I will finish this. I'm a completionist and unfinished things _bother_ me so very much. But it'll take a while. Sorry about that. :S**

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><p>"Why are you sitting out here?"<p>

"Hm?" Beca looked around at the words to find Chloe standing in the doorway to the morgue. She was smiling again, whatever had been bothering her the day before washed away. "Oh. Just watching the rain."

Chloe laughed. "Isn't that kind of boring?"

"Nope," she replied, popping her 'p'. "I like the rain." It made little puddles on the sidewalk, rivulets running across the pavement to join two together, forming a larger one. It caused miniature waterfalls when it hit the curb, racing down the street to the nearest grate as if searching for an escape route. It sang on the roof, whispered through the air, tapped on the bitumen like fingers on a keyboard. They were all sounds she knew; the familiarity was soothing.

Humming, Chloe sat next to her on the concrete wall around the garden outside the hospital, kicking her heels against the partition. Beca was of the opinion that Chloe liked to talk, liked to be outgoing and smiling all the time. Consequently, she was somewhat concerned that the bubbly redhead was silent right now. 'Silence' and 'Chloe' weren't things usually (in her limited experience anyway, a week isn't very long) put together in a sentence.

"Something the matter, red?" Beca asked quietly, staring past the edge of the roof at the grey clouds. A thin band of them rippled between the tops of office towers and apartment buildings itching to tickle the bottoms of the grey thunderheads. Weather was fascinating.

"No," Chloe sighed. "Not really. Just… I dunno." She paused, staring at Beca's face. It was disconcerting and hard to ignore but Beca did her best. "Have you ever been in a room full of friends and felt alone?"

"I've never had enough friends to fill a room," Beca fired back, hoping to make her smile. She was of the very strong opinion that sad-Chloe was no good. Like the sun had died or something.

It worked. In her peripherals, Beca saw Chloe's lips quirked up in a parody of a smile. "Ok," Chloe eventually conceded. "So you're not a people person. Don't you ever want friends?"

Beca shrugged. "I have Jesse."

Chloe's smile was wider now and she waved her hands in Beca's face. "Ooh, one whole friend. Look at you being a socialite."

"Calm down. Well… why do you feel the need to befriend everyone you meet?" Beca countered. This topic was weird. Why were they even talking about this?

"Better to have friends than enemies."

A logical response, Beca had to admit. "So I'm on your hit list I take it?"

Chloe lifted an eyebrow. "You did just say that I have to be friends with everyone. So yes, you're on my hit list. Got a problem with that, _short stack_?"

Beca groaned, ripping her eyes from Chloe to stare back up at the sky. Amy's stupid nickname for her had stuck with Chloe. Sure, twenty-four hours wasn't long, but Beca had a sneaking suspicion that it was going to last.

"Maybe I do," she huffed. "I'm not a very interesting person. And your bestie hates me."

"Aubrey doesn't hate you."

Beca rolled her eyes. "She can't stand my piercings or my tattoos or my 'unhealthy penchant for dark clothing' I believe were her words. I'm sure there was something about my eyeliner too, but I stopped listening."

"That's not who you are, though, Beca," Chloe said softly, joining her now in her contemplation of the clouds. "That's how you dress. Totally different things."

And she had no response to that. Luckily, Beca didn't have to spend any awkward length of time searching for something appropriate to say because Aubrey picked that moment to step outside. She spared Beca her usual judgemental grimace and then looked over at Chloe. Beca wondered if Aubrey was worried about how much time Chloe was spending with her, wondered if Aubrey thought Beca was a bad influence.

"Amy said she got a hit," she deadpanned, spinning on her heel to duck back inside.

"Awesome," Beca said, heaving herself to her feet before hauling Chloe up after her. "Amy found something for Jesse to do. Remind me tomorrow to bring my laptop to work with me. Sitting around like this is boring."

"I thought you said you liked the rain," Chloe asked with a smile as Beca held the door for her.

"Rain, yes. Sitting around with nothing to do, no." She sighed, scuffing her shoes on the tiles as they headed for the door to Amy's closet. "I just want to do my job. I miss being a scary detective asking the bad guys invasive questions."

Chloe chuckled. "How do you ever manage to look scary?" the redhead asked, bumping her in the shoulder. "I can't imagine anyone being afraid of you."

"It's the tattoos and my amazingly terrifying ear spike," Beca joked, stepping into the analyst's office. "What have you got for us, Amy?"

"Fat Amy," both Chloe and Amy corrected simultaneously.

"Fine," Beca exhaled. "What have you got for us, _Fat_ Amy?"

"You better have some praise ready there, because I found out two very interesting things about these women," Amy began, clicking the end of her pen in and out. "First off, every one of them was local. All born, raised and schooled in the area. Of course I then had to check attendance records and sadly they didn't all go to the same school, that one girl… Alicia, she lived on the other side of town to the rest. But, they were all very well known in the club district. Which leads me to my second point: a bar up in Hillside Terrace was a popular watering hole a few years back and these girls were among the regulars."

"Was popular?" Beca queried.

"Correct, short stuff, past tense," Amy confirmed, opening up a webpage about the pub. "It was shut down about seven months ago because there were some complaints filed by patrons about sexual harassment. You ready for the kicker?"

"Thrill me."

"Two of the girls worked as bartenders there for almost five months leading up to the bar being closed. A third one was a cook, the fourth was a customer who filed a harassment claim and the fifth was… dun dun dun! One of the lawyers who helped close the bar." Amy spun on her swivel chair to smile up at Beca. "See that magic? Are you blown away by my skills?"

"I'll buy you a drink later," Beca replied sarcastically. "What about the sixth woman?"

Amy frowned. "Yeah, I'm not sure how she ties in, I'll be honest. She never worked there and she didn't file a report as far as I can tell. And I can tell a lot because I have magical fingers. Pretty sure she was just a customer."

"Did she ever mention to someone who worked there that she thought something was up?"

"No idea; since most of the workers are either out of town now or currently in the same list of dead people as she is. Why?"

Beca tapped a finger against her thigh.

"What are you thinking?" Chloe asked quietly, brow furrowed. Even Aubrey was looking at her with a thoughtful expression.

"I'm thinking that if all these murders are connected to the bar, we might have a lead," Beca muttered. "Amy-"

"Fat Amy."

Beca sighed again. "_Fat_ Amy, can you find out how many of the past employees still live in town?"

"You think one of the employees did it?" Aubrey asked.

"Possibly. Maybe one who was really ticked about it being closed down."

Amy winked. "On it."


End file.
